Wishberry, Ketto and others raised close to Rs 10 cr for creative projects through crowdfunding

Wishberry has so far raised Rs 7 crore for 250 creative projects and "films have taken up half of the share", its co-founder Anshulika Dubey said.Shashwati Shankar | ET Bureau | December 22, 2015, 08:37 IST

Top Indian startups in this space - Wishberry, Catapooolt, Ketto and TheHotStart - have already raised about Rs 10 crore through crowdfunding to back non-tech creative projects.Internet users are the new producers for several filmmakers, theatre artists and musicians in the country as crowdfunding helps realise hundreds of creative art projects.

Top Indian startups in this space - Wishberry, Catapooolt, Ketto and TheHotStart - have already raised about Rs 10 crore through crowdfunding to back non-tech creative projects, specifically in the areas of film, theatre and music.

"Crowdfunding is a boon to people interested in the creative space-without this we would never have been able to launch our film Punyakoti," said Ravi Shankar, an HR professional at Infosys, who raised funds for what is touted to be the world’s first Sanskrit animation film.

Wishberry raised Rs 42 lakh for Punyakoti, the highest amount of backing the creative crowdfunding platform has seen so far, with 282 people making contributions. Wishberry has so far raised Rs 7 crore for 250 creative projects and "films have taken up half of the share", its co-founder Anshulika Dubey said.

Startups in this space say that besides films, music and theatrical projects find a lot of backers from metros and tier-2 cities such as Chandigarh, Nagpur and Bhubaneshwar.

Ketto has raised more than Rs 25 lakh only for theatre-based projects in the last one month, said Varun Sheth, one of its founders. Music videos and college events are other creative categories tapping crowdfunding.

"Our account manager for each project helps each of them in publishing and promoting their work through ways other than word of mouth marketing," Sheth said.

Pawan K Srivastava, filmmaker and activist behind one of the first independent films in India to be crowd-funded and created with just Rs 8 lakh, said the platform is a huge solution for many filmmakers and theatre professionals to get their work noticed.

"People in the creative arts spaces are always looking for money to back a project; crowdfunding is an easy way to get that visibility, especially since the platform helps you promote it," said Pawan K Srivastava who believes that many creative people in this space tend to be quiet about their ventures instead of actively marketing and advertising their projects.